Congress

Information
Our students compete in Congressional Debate through UIL, TFA, NSDA, and the Youth and Government program. In this event, they roleplay as actual politicians/members of congress; unless otherwise noted, they are members of the US House of Representatives. Some events have them compete as US Senators. The Youth and Government program acts as Texas Congress, instead of US. For UIL, TFA, and NSDA our school is able to submit legislation ahead of time to be considered part of the competition docket; for Youth and Government, each student must write their own bill for consideration.

UIL Congress
For UIL, there is a docket put together for our region. We are only allowed to enter 3 students to compete. The UIL competition takes place during the school day, thus those students will miss school on November 15, 2023; if they place in the top students at UIL Region, they will advance to a State-level competition. Here is a link to the UIL website with templates for bills/resolutions and other resources [since our region has a custom docket, you will have to get it from your coach]: https://www.uiltexas.org/speech/congress

TFA Congress
For TFA, there is a fall docket and a spring docket. If students qualify for TFA State, there is another docket for TFA State. When we attend local TFA tournaments, the tournament host will post on Tabroom.com which items they are using for prelims, semi-finals, and finals; students usually have 2-3 weeks to prepare before the event. Here is a link to the TFA website with useful resources, including templates for bills/resolutions and the current docket: https://www.txfa.org/debate

NSDA Congress
For NSDA, we compete in the national-qualifying tournament for congress. It has its own docket and our entries  are limited based on our NSDA degree strength level. Usually, we are able to enter at least 10 students for this event. With our school's membership to the NSDA website, you can login with your NSDA account to see the finals rounds videos from previous years: https://www.speechanddebate.org/final-round-videos/

Youth and Government Congress
For Y&G, they call their Congress section Legislative. It operates somewhat differently from the other organizations since students must each write their own bills and present them to a committee for a pro/con debate before proceeding to the main floor of Congress. What's special about this program is that the state conference uses the actual Texas State Capitol where our state's congress meets in real life. Here is a link to the Y&G website with videos and more information: https://ymcatexasyg.org/program-sections/legislative/
The Youth and Government competitions are separate from the rest of the tournaments:
*Nov. 2-3: Pre-District at Hebron HS
*Nov. 11: Youth and Government District at R.L. Turner HS
*Feb. 1-4: Youth and Government State at Austin in the State Capitol Building